The pact, struck last month, cleared the way for three of President Bush's more hotly contested judicial picks to the federal appeals courts to be confirmed.

In exchange, seven Republicans agreed not to support any attempt to change Senate filibuster rules and seven Democrats also agreed to filibuster Bush's judicial picks only in "extraordinary circumstances."

Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a speech at New York Law School that while he was initially disappointed in the deal because it allowed three conservative judges to be approved, he has quickly come to view it as a "significant monument to the best of the Senate, and a strong legacy for the Senate's future."

He said he hoped it would weather what he called an "imminent storm" over other presidential nominees facing a tough road to confirmation, informs the News Day.